INFO: E-Prime Go Best Practices [35507]

This article is currently being updated by our staff.

This article applies to:

E-Prime Go 1.0

 

Detail 

Adjust the Startup Info Min value for the Subject prompt  

A participant running an E-Prime Go experiment may inadvertently enter the Subject number as 0. This results in no data files being generated along with the following error message upon completion of the experiment run:

 

 

This can be eliminated by setting the minimum value for the Subject in an experiment's Startup Info. To do this, you need to navigate to the Experiment object > Startup Info tab > and edit the Min value for the Subject prompt to be a non-zero number (most likely 1).

 

 

Enable Display Flipping in the Display device settings

Running on Windows 8 and beyond requires Display Flipping to be enabled for timing purposes. For more information, see AV: DisplayDevice.FlippingEnabled [18483].

 

Uncheck the Sound Device if the experiment is not presenting sound 

If an experiment does not present any sound, then the Sound device should be unchecked. To do this, navigate into the Experiment object > Devices > and uncheck the Sound device.

 

 

This eliminates the possibility of having participants run into errors related to not having a compatible sound system despite that one is not necessary for the experiment.

 

If sharing abort sequences with participants, recommend Ctrl+Alt+Backspace (Conditional Exit) over Ctrl+Alt+Shift

When providing users instructions on how to terminate an experiment early, have participants perform the Conditional Exit (Ctrl+Alt+Backspace).

 

Using Ctrl+Alt+Shift to terminate an experiment results in a runtime error and does not provide an .edat3 file. However, you may use the recovery text file to regenerate an .edat3 file. Using this method does not result in a status of "Completed" on eprimego.com (you may see Experiment Finished / Complete (Runtime Error) depending on the version of the .exe run.

 

Using Ctrl+Alt+Backspace performs a "graceful abort" and provides an .edat3 file (i.e., the .edat3 does not need to be regenerated). A test session using the graceful Abort has a status of "Completed" on eprimego.com. Use the method below to check for this occurrence.

 

NOTE: See INFO: Experiment status on the E-Prime Go website [36990] for more information on E-Prime Go statuses.

 

Add a check for Graceful Abort

When a participant performs a Graceful Abort (INFO: Conditional Exit (Graceful Abort) [17943]), data uploads successfully if an .edat3 is produced and no error occurs. However, there is no indication that the experiment was terminated early besides noticing the missing data. You may log an Attribute in your data file (.edat3) to easily identify when this occurs. To do so, place an InLine as the last object on SessionProc with the following script:

 

If GetConditionalExitState <> 0 Then c.SetAttrib "GracefulAbort", "YES"

 

Pack the experiment in a clean folder

We recommend packing E-Prime Go experiments in a new, clean folder. This can be done by opening the File Explorer > right-clicking > New > Folder. Packing an experiment in a old, "unclean" folder may result in unintended files being automatically added to the packed .exe as resource files. For example, packing an .ebs3 file that is on the Desktop may result in files from every sub-folder on the Desktop being added to the packed .exe file (See BUG: Packing may appear to freezes when packing .ebs3 files in folders with thousands of files [36044] and BUG: Attempting to pack in a root directory results in error [36040] for more information).

 

 

Saving Space on the E-Prime Go Website

The E-Prime Go website allows up to 2GBs of experiments and data to be stored on it. To avoid having the storage space being filled, we recommend downloading the data locally and then deleting the data on the website (see INFO: Deleting E-Prime Go experiments and data [36295] for more information).

 

Instruct potential participants to first run PcQualify

We advise all prospective participants to run the PcQualify application prior to being provided with a packed E-Prime Go experiment. PcQualify is an application that determines if a data collection machine is compatible with E-Prime. Refer to INFO: PcQualify for E-Prime Go / E-Prime 3.0 [35382] for more information on failures and workarounds.

 

Instruct potential participants to always download and run from eprimego.com

We advise all prospective participants to run the desired task from eprimego.com. This ensures that they are using the latest version (see INFO: Running with the latest Unpacker [36898] for more information).

 

See Also:

TIMING: Verifying your E-Prime Go Timing [35028]

INFO: E-Prime Go pre-selects likely Resource Files based on location and file type [35261]

 

For more advice, the E-Primer website provides a list of Tips and Tricks for using E-Prime Go.